Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the motion moved by the member for Wannon because indeed I am one of the fortunate ones. I am one of those people who were diagnosed with a melanoma many years ago. I was fortunate in that my wife is a pharmacist and noticed an unusual spot on the back of my leg, somewhere that I would not have noticed it otherwise. It is not somewhere you would normally look when you are having a shower or bath or whatever it might be. I thank her, and I will be thankful till the day I move on, for her identifying this as something that she thought was worth getting somebody more qualified to inspect. Indeed, that person was my father's former GP partner, Neville Ludbey, who had a particular interest in dermatology. I will be eternally grateful for the fact that he said, 'I don't like that,' immediately did a biopsy and sent it away. Indeed, it was a live unit, and in the next few days I had a plastic surgeon remove a larger area of that melanoma from the back of my leg. It was quite an innocuous thing. It was a small, red spot, slightly raised on the skin, but with a darker red centre. My wife identified that. Like so many here—I note the member for Fowler's comments—we all played cricket; we all got sunburnt. I played cricket in a regular, competitive fashion until well into my mid-30s. It just was not the thing. Yes, it is true, even in Tasmania we go to the beach. It was a different time, when we did not think of those consequences. We were the products of our parents, I guess. It does make you realise—and I am one of the fortunate ones—that life is short.

It was not so much the process: once it had been identified and was a live unit, it was taken out. I am a pretty take-it-as-it-comes type of person, but always, in the back of your mind, there is the risk that you will find another melanoma at some other point. I was one of the fortunate ones, because that was 12 years ago and, touch wood, that is not the case anymore. I look at my sons, I look at my boys, and I look at the way my wife and I now deal with them. They are both fair skinned, and they have been brought up in a very different place in terms of the way they look after themselves in relation to their exposure to the sun. So I would just say, if you see a strange new mole on your skin, or an old mole that has started to change, be sure to see your doctor and have it checked. Find out what to look for and, particularly, do a self-examination or have somebody that you are close to look for suspicious things.

I would also like to mention Di Mason. There is not a Melanoma March that I am aware of in Tasmania this month, but late last year Di Mason established Melanoma Tasmania. That was as a result of her mother passing away from the disease about 10 years ago. Annually, between 200 and 300 Tasmanians are diagnosed with melanoma and between 30 and 50 people die. Melanoma is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in Australia. On average 30 Australians will be diagnosed with melanoma every day, and more than 1,200 will die from the disease each year. It is a serious disease. It has a higher prevalence in men, and the reasons for that have been discussed by others here. I think we all understand today that prevention is absolutely better than cure and the things that we should do in terms of wearing hats, covering our skin and, if it is uncovered, using an appropriate type of sunscreen. These are the things that we do understand.

I think no-one in the debate here has mentioned solariums. Why would you do it? Why on earth would you do it? I thank the member for Wannon for bringing this important subject to the attention of the House and this important month that is Melanoma March.

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